Investment banks are cutting 30,000 jobs globally this year

About 30,000 investment-banking jobs are getting axed this year as the global banking industry looks set for a gloomy second half of 2019. 

According to a  report by The Financial Times, most of the cuts have been in European banks, with Deutsche Bank making up a large portion of the layoffs after last month's overhaul.  However, American banks such as Citigroup are also struggling as falling interest rates, along with increased use of automation and AI, have hit investment banking jobs.

Earlier this year, Deutsche Bank announced 18,000 job cuts as part of a major overhaul of its business. The bank also announced its biggest loss since 2008 in its latest earnings report, indicating the toll of the changes.

Barclays has also cut 3000 jobs this year and made some major changes at the top of the business.  In April, Société Générale announced that 1600 jobs would be cut, with most of the cuts in France and New York.

Meanwhile, Citigroup announced they would be cutting hundreds of jobs this year with a 10 percent reduction in their equities unit. 

Citigroup's challenges look to be the trend across global banking. Bloomberg reported that in the latest round of earnings earlier this month, the five biggest American banks' trading revenue was down 8% last quarter, following a 14 percent slide in the first quarter.

Among the banks that have announced formal job cuts, the layoffs come to about 6 percent of their total workforce.